Song:The Way You Look Tonight
Album:The Collection
Of course Bryan Ferry is best known as lead singer of Roxy Music. As a solo artist, he is probably best known for covering standards. A lot of once popular rock singers have been doing that to sell CDs to older fans. Ferry has been doing it longer so it seems less of a marketing gimmick. He was born Sept. 26, 1945 in Washington, Tyne and Wear, England. He took up music while studying fine are at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. He formed The Banshees and then moved to London in 1968. Ferry formed Roxy Music in 1970 and they went on to be one of the most successful bands of the 70s. He recorded his first solo album These Foolish Things in 1973. It was an album of covers. His first three solo albums were fairly successful and he recorded three more after Roxy Music split up in 1976. When the three albums that followed didn't do as well, Roxy Music reformed in 1979. Ferry concentrated on that until they split up again in 1982. Ferry recorded Boys and Girls in 1985. It was his most successful solo album to date. And it was all original material. So he continued like this in the 90s. Despite his success, Ferry seems to prefer recording standards and that's what he has done in recent years. His recording of The Way You Look Tonight is from the 1999 CD As Time Goes By. It is all covers of 30s standards. This comp licensed by Disky covers Ferry's solo career. Ferry continues to mix original material with standards as he has on his latest CD Avonmore. I guess at this point Ferry is regarded as a British music legend. He will tour England this spring. Here's Bryan Ferry performing The Way You Look Tonight from the DVD Bryan Ferry Live in Paris at Le Grand Rex 2001.
I knew of Bryan Ferry from Roxy music. I had no idea of his long and extensive music career. I should not be surprised at this point in my life. Many of these artists are both very accomplished and stay in this profession for most if not all of their lives out of love of music. For the record, I love his song "Avalon". I have that in my music library. I will have to look into more of his music in the near future.
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